Billing systems are secret weapon for CSL

Rating: Billing comes with completely new network equip

It’s what CSL’s CEO, Tarek Robbiati (see GoMo News passim) didn’t mention which probably gives his company the most significant competitive edge. His billing system.

CSL has decided to rebuild its cellular network from scratch with the objective of making it ‘LTE-ready’. So, whilst in the process of throwing out its former Nokia infrastructure equipment (appearing on an eBay site near you soon), it also got a new billing system.

That’s right, it’s from ZTE. The result? The most impressive tariff innovation GoMo News has come across in a while. CSL has introduced three different tariffs which depend on how fast you want your broadband Internet to go – 3.6 Mbit/s, 7.2 Mbit/s and 21 Mbit/s.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that GoMo News can remember a UK operator struggling to introduce a flat rate data plan because its billing system couldn’t hack it.

The question is – what else can this system do which might lead to even more innovative service offerings? After all, CSL is able to upgrade and provision ‘Next G’ over the phone for subscribers.

And just in case you’re thinking that GoMo News has become more than a tad biased towards ZTE, the main HSPA + dongle modems it offers customers are sourced from Sierra Wireless, not just ZTE.

So far CSL is content with offering music  downloads and a real-time stock exchange ticker over its mobile broadband. However, with such a flexible system, CSL might find new ways to charge for content – such as live gaming.

Interestingly, CSL is so intent of getting rid of its legacy equipment, that it is planning to do away with its legacy services, too. The company is planning to offer an IP based messaging system to replace SMS/MMS.

GoMo News expects this IP based service will work a bit like Skype’s IM service where you can just ‘chat’ or swap files if you so choose.

A curious admission from CSL’s CTO, Christian Daigneault, though. He revealed that CSL probably won’t turn off GSM (2G) entirely. There’s parts of the spectrum utilised for it that can’t really be used for anything else.

Tony is based in Surrey and is a veteran comms journalist. Tony also writes on the UK market…. contact him here tony@mobileinsight.co.uk.